Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, the Ubisoft stealth adventure series’ 2015 entry featuring dual protagonists that’s set in 19th century London, is currently available for free on PC until December 6. The catch? You’ll need to get it from the Ubisoft Connect launcher (insert horror emoji here). But hey, don’t hate the messenger.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (which released for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 23, 2015) was the last AC title before Origins and Odyssey took the series down more of an RPG path with more stats and levels to consider before facing off against foes. Syndicate was a significant improvement over its buggy predecessor, Assassin’s Creed Unity. It received solid critic’s scores and positive reviews all-around, and it had a fantastic ending with a great boss fight.
If you missed out on Syndicate and are curious (or just want a free game), simply head on over to Ubisoft’s Syndicate giveaway page to claim a copy. You don’t even need to have its not-so-great launcher downloaded to claim it on your Ubisoft account (but you must install the store to play it).
In Kotaku’s review of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, we described it simply as “a really good Assassin’s Creed game,” one notably of a different era (before Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla) but still very much worth your time:
[Syndicate] has a light, almost comic, tone, underscored by the playful fiddles in Austin Wintory’s [Journey, The Order: 1886, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical] score. The plot—involving ancient civilizations, magical shrouds, cutscenes from the present day about the actions of Abstergo and characters from the Desmond/Ezio era—seems like it would be basically incomprehensible to players who aren’t steeped in Assassin’s Creed lore. But it doesn’t matter: The moment-to-moment motivations of the [the protagonists] are clear enough.
Syndicate might be just what you’re looking for if you have played (or are thinking of playing) this year’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which we categorized as a return to the series’ roots, “when stealth mattered, climbing was a puzzle, enemies could be dispatched with a single sneaky blade.”
